Good Habits Can Be Harmful

Good habits can be a help and health to one’s spiritual life, but can also be harmful. They can be a blessing or a curse, a blessing if they’re under our control, a curse if we’re under their control. We can be a slave to our habits, like being under a law, fearful of breaking one of our self-imposed, rigid rules.

One great danger of a good habit is found in the fact that after a while, you forget its original purpose. Meaningful things become mechanical; we are no longer conscious of their original intent. Things such as Bible reading, kissing a loved one each time they leave the house, saying grace at mealtime, as well as a score of other things we do habitually.

We can get so used to doing things a certain way that we feel there is no other way. And we end up attempting to impose our way on others. After spending a lifetime tying your left shoe first, it’s okay to start with your right one, if you want. Some have forgotten, “Variety is the spice of life.”

I know people who almost worship their good habit;, they have made little gods of them. It is not our good habits that come first, but God’s plan. God has a way of upsetting our good habits, and if we refuse to yield to what He wants at that particular time, then look for a long dry spell. Persisting to do things the way we always have can put one in danger of putting good before God. This is what Eve fell for; she chose something good over God!